I have discovered that certain kinds of pain can be reduced or eliminated by the application of an entirely different form of current signal to painful areas of the body. Accordingly, I have invented an apparatus for application of such current, and a method of providing such current in the required useful form.
The apparatus of the invention provides means for applying direct current rather than pulsing signals at a low or at various low levels and at low rates of change. The current levels cause potential gradients to occur in the tissue which are substantially less than the nerve or muscle excitation potentials. Accordingly, there is not sensation of electrical shock, no nerve stimulation, and no spasm or other stimulation of muscle tissue. The current is specifically of the form which avoids the generation of nerve impulses, and consequently, no impulses are passed via nerves to the spine or brain.
It has been found that various kinds of pain are removed or eliminated, as well as certain kinds of inflammation which surrounds damaged tissues. The pain which is reduced or eliminated appears to involve healthy tissue which has received chemical messengers from the distressed cells. The present invention is believed to act to neutralize the chemical messengers, thus substantially reducing the region of affected distress message receivers, which thus do not respond and do not generate pain messages. Indeed, the chemical messengers are believed to be neutralized sufficiently that they do not reach the nerve dendrites, thus substantially reducing the probability that pain messages will be generated by the nerve and carried to the brain.